12/11/23

Good morning! It’s Monday, December 11th.

International mountain day. You know what I love about mountains? They’re tall.

Do you know what the difference is between a hill and a mountain?

Trick question – there is no difference. I mean, yeah usually we refer a hill as something less steep and high as a mountain, but according to the U.S. Geological Survey, there is no official difference between the two.

And now, the news.

Hunter Biden Indicted

-via AP News

Sorry about no news on Friday. I had technical issues. Classic case of – oh dang! That computer is kinda broken! (But not too broken to continue recording the news, so we’re good).

It’s wild too because it was a big ol news day.

Starting with – Hunter Biden was indicted on nine tax charges in California on Thursday. The charges, three felonies and six misdemeanors, center around a period between 2016 and 2019, when Hunter, while struggling with his addiction didn’t pay around $1.4 million in taxes.

The back taxes have since been paid, but as a reminder – this private citizen is the president’s son so I guess if they can’t find any crimes from the president (which they’ve tried to do for years, and still continue to come up empty handed), this is their backup plan.

Speaking of trying to find crimes… the House is possibly going to vote this week on whether to formally authorize the impeachment inquiry that, again, has yet to actually find anything. And listen, this isn’t like the Team Trumpers that think it’s fine if he did crimes and there shouldn’t be any consequences.

But first of all – this is a private citizen who, while struggling with addiction, made some bad choices. He paid the back taxes. Make him pay a fine, whatever. There should be consequences but if he’s charged, he could spend 17 years in prison. Come on.

And if there was any evidence that the president did actually commit crimes, okay fine – do the inquiry. Take a closer look. But you’ve had a year and haven’t found anything. I’m not saying I want a Republican House to start pushing more legislation, but this is a waste of time and money all because you have your feelings hurt because you went all in on a buffoon who wouldn’t even successfully sell water, and because Trump was twice-impeached for actually crimes, you’re seeking political retribution instead of taking the .02 seconds it would take to use your frontal cortex and think that maybe you should do what you were elected to do and actually try and make this country better.

WOW – I did not know I had that big of feelings about this. I mean I knew it I didn’t like it but wowzers. Am I okay?

Texas Abortion Rights

-via NY Times (Texas)

Also last week – A Texan woman who is pregnant with a fetus with a fatal condition has the added trauma of being forced to continue being a political pawn because late Friday, in response to an appeal by Attorney General Ken Paxton, the Texas Supreme Court halted a lower court ruling that would have allowed the woman to have an abortion in spite of the state’s abortion bans.

However, because Paxton, who has never been able to get pregnant and should seriously stay quiet on the subject then and if only wishing made it so and he’d just been impeached last September, just doesn’t think she should be able to get an abortion, this woman, who is 20 weeks pregnant and has already been to the emergency room multiple times because of this pregnancy, will continue to be forced to carry this baby against her will.

This is a case that would only specifically apply to her, so it’s not like allowing her to get the abortion she wants would immediately allow others to do the same (even though – hello. Yes. Let’s allow that.). But no, this is just her, and she is still being used as a political pawn.

Tennessee Tornados

-via CNN

At least 6 people are dead and more than 50 were injured after a tornado tore across Tennessee on Saturday night.

Additionally, more than 35,000 customers are without power throughout the state, while temperatures dip into the 20s at night. And as the state, in coordination with FEMA, work on the recovery, someone else needs to get to looking into this: the tornado sirens didn’t go off until after the storm. Which is not helpful.

Trump Gag Order

-via Politico (gag order) and AP News (testimony)

In “will the story ever end? Why did people vote for him? This is so annoying to continue to talk about” news… The DC Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Friday that Trump’s 1st amendment argument about why there shouldn’t be a gag order against him attacking prosecutors and witnesses publicly in his federal election stealing crimes case is, uh… lame.

Because again… the 1st Amendment is complicated and also not. It’s the right to say what you want, not the right to say it without consequence.

This gag order is more narrow than the one originally imposed in October. Here, he can still criticize people who were a part of the 2020 election stealing crimes he did, but he can’t focus his rants on their potential testimony.

This is different gag order than the New York civil money crimes cause gag order.

I know it’s tough to tell all the gag orders, and civil and criminal court dealings apart. There are so many. And yet – he is the front runner for the Republican nomination.

What a party.

Speaking of that New York civil money crimes case – he was supposed to testify today in that case, but now says he won’t. So that’s… whatever. That’s something.

And that’s it. That’s the news.

Tomorrow, unless something happens to change this, I’ll be doing a whole episode on where things stand with Israel and Hamas. There’s a lot to cover and it just doesn’t feel like I can thoughtfully do that in two minutes between other stories, ya know?

I’m proud of mountains. Tall hills. Love that for them.

But more than that. Because you also are a mountain of a person… I’m proud of you.